Location / Climate

Tenerife is one of the seven islands that make up the archipelago of the Canary Islands and you can locate in the Atlantic Ocean, namely between parallels 28º and 29º N and 16º and 17º W. It is slightly north of the Tropic of Cancer occupying a central position between Gran Canaria, La Gomera and La Palma and just over 300 km from the African continent, and about 1,000 km from the Iberian Peninsula.

It is the largest island of the Canary archipelago with 2,034.38 km2 distributed in triangular shape and which has the longest coastline of 342 kilometers. In the center of the island is the Teide volcano at 3,718 meters above sea level which is recognized as the highest point in Spain.

The climate of the island of Tenerife is determined by the latitude, topography and ocean currents and by alternating warm subtropical anticyclones, leading to a steady beat (trade winds, predominant in this area of ​​the Atlantic, which operates from polar to equatorial zones) and storms, not common areas, causing a rainy and unstable weather. Alongside them, the proximity to the African continent that favors certain times throughout the year to reach southeasterly winds with airborne dust (haze).

The island relief acts pushing up air flows impinging on its slopes, trying to save the barrier surrounding it or tracing it, so that the rise of air and cooling occurs to the level of condensation, leading to the phenomenon known as “sea of ​​clouds”. The more humid the air, the lower the clouds formed.

These promotions from the air due to contact with the terrain often produce dramatic contrasts of time between the slopes of windward and leeward, by heating, drying, acceleration and air turbulence produced by descending it by the slopes of the opposite mountains to address the winds. A This is called the Foehn effect.

The mild temperatures is the dominant note of the insular thermal regime. The altitude is responsible for the drop in temperature as it rises, although it should be noted inversion when trade winds blow, which is normal, causing temperatures at high altitudes are higher than those that would apply.

The increased rainfall originate in the North Slope, in particular, between 600 and 1,200 meters above sea level, where, in addition, the effect of precipitation fog, known as “horizontal rain” occurs due to the presence the sea of ​​clouds. The annual distribution is variable, but the months with the highest volume of rainfall ranging from November to February.

In areas of peak rainfall they are lower, and mostly do as snow and concentrated in the autumn and winter months. During the summer, the presence of the Azores anticyclone minimizes the rains.

These variations between island slopes, according to its position on the trade winds, slope, ranging from the seashore to the more than three thousand meters, originate a combination of local climates, wind, precipitation, soil and guidance , resulting variety of crops, and among them, determining the different landscapes of the vineyard on the island.